Log cabin, small house built of logs notched at the ends and laid one upon another with the spaces filled with plaster, moss, mortar, mud, or dried manure. Log cabins are found especially in wooded areas, where the construction material is easily at hand. In North America they were built by early settlers and by hunters, loggers, and other wilderness dwellers. They have also been built in Europe, particularly in the Scandinavian countries.

Although the designs vary, a common style features a sloping, single-gabled timbered roof and small windows. The interior is usually simple, with one room, perhaps partitioned, over which a loft might be built. Modern summer cottages may be built of logs (or given log-cabin siding) to achieve a rustic effect.

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in Western architecture

...style persisted in this region until after the American Revolution. (3) The Swedish colonial settlement, established in 1638 along the lower Delaware River, was of short duration but contributed the log cabin (in the sense of a structure with round logs, notched at the corners and with protruding ends) to American architecture. (4) The Pennsylvania colonial style was late in origin (the colony...

...timbered. In Russia, walls were built of horizontal timbers sometimes as much as 3 square feet (about 0.3 square metre) in cross section. In Scandinavia the ancestors of the American frontier log cabin were built in this way. In the Germanic area, however, half-timber and palisade construction were preferred. A survivor of the latter type is the old part of the Saxon church (1013) at...

...to fell and work large trees. This led in turn to new developments in building technics; timbers were cut and shaped extensively, hewed into square posts, sawed into planks, and split into shingles. Log cabin construction appeared in the forested areas of Europe, and timber framing became more sophisticated. Although the excavated remains are fragmentary, undoubtedly major advances were made in...